SBCC and Ventura played three tight sets on Friday night in a WSC North women's volleyball match at the Sports Pavilion. The third-ranked Vaqueros prevailed by a total of eight points in a 26-24, 27-25, 25-21 sweep.
Santa Barbara (17-3, 2-0) got better in each set, hitting .222, .311 and .429 in the third set with 14 kills and just two errors. Ventura led most of the way in the third set until the Vaqueros erased an 18-17 deficit with an 8-3 match-ending run.
The Vaqueros hit .305 en route to their 14th sweep in 20 matches.
Carolyn Andrulis led the way with 14 kills, seven digs and five blocks. Kaylene Ureno added 12 kills and hit .462 with no errors on 26 swings. Shannon Friend added seven kills and middle hitter Hannah Cantrell had five kills and a .667 hitting percentage.
Kiana Pisula had 37 assists, a season-high for a 3-set match, and a team-leading 12 digs.
"We played steady and played with what we like to preach: 'calm intensity,' " said coach Ed Gover. "It's important when matches get tight and the pressure builds up, you have to have a calmness about you. Down the stretch in crunch time, we had that calm look on our faces and didn't panic.
"In the second set, it was amazing to Karissa Mertens go back there and rattle off those serves. In the third set, we made a few blocking mistakes, then we shut them down at the end."
Ventura (8-12, 2-1) led for much of the first set with leads of 5-1, 14-10 and 23-21. The Vaqueros weathered a set point at 24-23 when the Pirates served wide left. SBCC got a set point on a lift that made it 25-24 and won it when Ureno tooled a kill off the block.
Mertens, a freshman from Dos Pueblos High, came off the bench and sparked the Vaqueros in the second set when they rallied from a 21-19 deficit. She had a kill from the 10-foot line and an ace that made it 24-21.
"The coaches told me to focus on the target," said Mertens. "We did a really good job of covering and it was a great match."
Ventura responded with four straight points and had set point at 25-24. Vaquero setter Kiana Pisula made a clever dump shot on two, Jaela Caston and Pisula combined for a block and the Vaqueros won the set 27-25 on a net violation. There were 11 ties and 10 lead changes in the second set.
There were 12 ties in the third set and Ventura took the biggest lead at 10-7. The Vaqueros fell behind 18-17, then got a couple of kills from Cantrell on the slide step and another one off the block that made it 23-20.
"Carolyn has been sick recently and she played really well," said Gover. "Hannah was a real sparkplug, running those slides when we didn't have that attack for a while."
The Vaqueros host Moorpark on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
